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The First Step is Admitting That Everybody Else Has a Problem

States of mind

rippedjeansI don’t know about you and me, but it’s clear as that unopenable, molded plastic they package everything in these days they everybody else is pretty screwed up. I mean, come on: suburban sprawl? Pollution? The fashion trend where your jeans have to be all discolored and ripped up? Geraldo Rivera? Everybody Else may think they don’t have a problem, but it’s pretty obvious they’re fooling themselves.

Case in point: the near-annihilation of all of the Native American nations. They had Europeans going around and enslaving people, stealing their stuff, giving them infected blankets, shooting them, breaking agreements, taking their land, telling them to clear off and go live in the desert … all kinds of injustice. Then later, as if to add insult to injury, they make it so the only way they can make their living is by running casinos. I know I wasn’t there to do any of that stuff, and I bet there’s at least a 96 to 97 percent chance you weren’t, either.

Now, this is kind of hard to reconcile. I mean, it’s clearly a good thing to take responsibility for our own lives and how they go, but what about all this stuff other people have done to mess us up (and right when things seemed to be going pretty well for once, too)? Don’t we have enough of our own issues to deal with without having to put up with that nonsense?

Clearly Everybody Else needs help. Now, you know Everybody Else: it’s really hard to get in a meaningful conversation with them, and when you do, they kind of mumble and end up wandering off to play Halo or get their hair frosted or something. The problem with Everybody Else is that they just don’t listen! If you’ve ever tried to gently instruct people in the art of more considerate driving by revving your engine and honking your horn at them, you’ll know what I mean.

Unfortunately, that leaves you and me holding the bag, my friend. If Everybody Else won’t get help, then we’re going to have to do one of those perspective shifts and consider ourselves part of Everybody Else, then get some help ourselves. As close as we are to perfect, we can probably come up with at least a few things that could stand improvement, and if we look at it that way, then at least Everybody Else is getting somewhere. Maybe some of them will even kind of notice what we’re doing and try to follow along. No, seriously, it could happen.

Why it should be left to you and me to be part of Everybody Else and improve, subjecting ourselves to potential arch comments when we consult self-help materials or to pride-swallowing when our pride really isn’t going down too smooth in the first place, I don’t know. But as much of a pain in the butt as Everybody Else is, we really do love them (or at least certain ones of them we know), and a touch of self-sacrifice every now and again won’t kill us. After all, we’re pretty chill, you and me: we can handle it.

Photo by Idhren

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